Staff Directory
.jpg&width=180&height=270&type=webp)
- Title:
- Vice President and Director of Athletics
- Email:
- Start Date:
- 11/28/2016
Ian McCaw has a vision for Liberty Athletics, and he has worked quickly to make that vision a reality since being named the department’s 11th director of athletics on Nov. 28, 2016.
His vision for Liberty’s intercollegiate athletics program is to train Champions for Christ by providing a high quality student-athlete experience and achieving victory with integrity.
McCaw has lived out this mission, guiding Liberty Athletics to unparalleled success on the field, in the classroom and the local community in his short time on Liberty Mountain.
Heading into the 2025-26 athletics season, Liberty’s teams have captured 107 total conference titles since McCaw’s arrival on Liberty Mountain, including regular season and tournament champions.
Under McCaw’s leadership, Liberty Athletics is the fastest growing athletics department in the country. Nearly all 20 of its NCAA Division I programs have reached new heights at the national level in the last few years.
Fifteen of Liberty’s 20 NCAA Division I athletics programs have won a regular season or tournament championship during the last two years (2023-24 and 2024-25), resulting in 25 total conference titles.
During the Flames’ second year as a member of Conference USA, Liberty Athletics captured double-digit CUSA titles for the second year in a row, bringing home 11 CUSA trophies.
Softball, men’s basketball and women’s basketball each swept the CUSA regular-season and tournament crowns, while women’s soccer (regular season), women’s indoor track & field, women’s outdoor track & field, women’s cross country and men’s cross country won single CUSA championships.
Women’s lacrosse and women’s swimming & diving both claimed Atlantic Sun crowns, bringing Liberty Athletics’ yearly total to 13 total conference championships in 2024-25.
Additionally, Liberty Athletics had a student-athlete earn the prestigious NCAA Elite 90 Award at the NCAA Indoor Track Championships (pentathlete Meredith Engle) for the fourth time in department history and second year in a row.
Liberty Athletics finished the 2024-25 season ranked No. 97 in the final standings, which ranks the top collegiate athletics departments in the country.
Liberty has finished inside the top 100 of the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings five of the last six rankings and seven times total in athletics department history.
Liberty was also the top-ranked Conference USA program in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings in 2024-25. The Flames bested second-place Jacksonville State (No. 141) and third-place finisher Sam Houston (No. 154).
Under McCaw’s leadership, Liberty’s transition to the FBS ranks has been one of the most successful in NCAA history.
Liberty is one of three teams (also Appalachian State and Marshall) to become bowl eligible in each
of its first six seasons after transitioning from the FCS to FBS, which includes bowl game wins in 2019 (Cure Bowl), 2020 (Cure Bowl) and 2021 (LendingTree Bowl).
The Flames’ fifth-straight bowl game appearance marked the most notable athletics event in Liberty Athletics’ 50-plus year history. Following an undefeated regular season in 2023 and a win in the CUSA Football Championship game, Liberty made its first-ever New Years Six bowl game appearance where the No. 23 ranked Flames battled No. 8 Oregon in the 2024 Vrbo Fiesta Bowl.
Liberty’s success on the field during McCaw’s time on Liberty Mountain has allowed the visionary athletics director to reshape conference affiliation for the Flames.
Less than three months into his time at the head of the athletics department, McCaw helped launch Liberty into the top level of intercollegiate competition. On Feb. 16, 2017, Liberty received notification that the NCAA had approved its request to enter into a two-year Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) reclassification process.
McCaw then helped pave the way for the future of Liberty Athletics on May 17, 2018, when it was announced that 17 of the 20 NCAA Division I programs will end a 27-year run in the Big South Conference to join the ASUN Conference for the 2018-19 athletics season.
Liberty Athletics swept all three All-Sport trophies each year the conference presented the award during the Flames’ five-year run as a conference member: 2018-19, 2021-22 and 2022-23.
The league did not award any All-Sport trophies during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 athletics seasons due to the cancellation and disruption of the seasons caused by COVID-19.
In the era of massive conference realignment, McCaw positioned the Flames to make another conference leap when Liberty moving to Conference USA, starting with the 2023-24 athletics season.
Conference USA is now the all-sports conference for Liberty Athletics, including the Flames’ football team that has competed as an FBS independent program since moving up to the FBS level in 2018.
Liberty’s recent success has spawned unprecedented growth in the Flames Club and record-setting football and basketball season ticket sales.
Financial support for Liberty Athletics continues to grow at a record pace as the Flames Club currently has a record number of members (5,443), an increase of 3,560 members in the last five years (since 2019).
Recent major gifts include $30,000 for naming the visitor's gate at Williams Stadium, a $200,000 planned gift for the Athletics Missions Fund, and a $100,000 gift to support the Golf Practice Facility expansion.
During Liberty’s annual Giving Day, the Flames Club raised $1.70 million from 2,516 gifts during a 24-hour period. Additionally, the second annual Flames Club Spring Gala raised over $210,000, up from $100,000 from its inaugural event.
Liberty’s success has not just been limited to the field of competition, as Flames student-athletes are also winning in the classroom.
Liberty Athletics achieved the best cumulative GPA in school history following the 2024-25 academic year with a 3.40 cumulative GPA. This is both the highest year-end mark and highest overall cumulative GPA in athletics department history.
All 20 of Liberty's teams earned a 3.0 or higher GPA for both the fall and spring semesters as well as for the 2024-25 academic year and cumulatively. This is the second straight year all 20 teams had a 3.0 or higher GPA for a school year after the feat had never been achieved prior to last year. This is also the second straight semester that all 20 Liberty Athletics squads have had a cumulative GPA or 3.0 or higher.
Liberty Athletics also posted a 92 percent NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) during the 2024-25 athletics year, the highest GSR score in school history.
Finally, a Liberty Athletics record eight programs were recognized by the NCAA for holding a perfect 1,000 Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores during the 2024-25 academic year.
Outside the classroom, our NCAA student-athletes remain dedicated to serving the Lynchburg community while growing as individuals. During the 2024-2025 academic year, Liberty’s student-athletes participated in over 45 different community service and outreach projects and more than 75 different personal development workshops, seminars and programs.
The Lord continues to move among our student-athletes with multiple salvations and many taking their profession of faith public with a baptism. Throughout the 2024-25 year, 15 student-athletes made their faith known by getting baptized, including some baptisms by their fellow teammates and coaches.
As Liberty softball program prepared to defend its title at the 2025 CUSA Softball Championship, the team celebrated another type of victory before the championship began. The team watched Lady Flames Head Coach Dot Richardson baptize 26 softball players from five Conference USA schools at the tournament host hotel following their public professions of faith in Jesus Christ.
Road to Liberty Mountain
McCaw is well equipped to lead Liberty at the highest level of college athletics, having nearly two decades of previous service as director of athletics at Baylor (2003-16), Massachusetts (2002-03), and Northeastern (1997-2002).
During his time at Baylor, the Bears experienced tremendous success on the field, in the classroom, and in fundraising and facility development. McCaw helped Baylor capture five team national championships (acrobatics & tumbling, 2015; equestrian, 2012; men’s tennis, 2004; and women’s basketball, 2005 and 2012), had 17 student-athletes win individual national championships (track & field and men’s and women’s tennis), and captured 58 Big 12 Conference titles.
Baylor’s football team reached bowl games for six consecutive years (2010-15) and won the Big 12 Championship in 2013 and 2014. The Bears’ Robert Griffin III became the nation’s top collegiate football player in 2011 when he was named the school’s first ever Heisman Trophy winner.
During his final five seasons at Baylor, the Bears’ football and men’s and women’s basketball programs posted a combined 350-84 record, the best mark in the country during that span.
Under McCaw’s watch, student-athletes thrived in the classroom as Baylor finished first or second in the Big 12 in graduation success rate in seven of his last nine years. The school recorded its highest ever cumulative GPA in 2015-16 (3.34).
While Baylor enjoyed extraordinary academic and athletic success under McCaw’s leadership, his department also made significant administrative strides.
Above and Beyond, a five-year strategic plan for intercollegiate athletics, was developed and implemented to achieve the department’s goals and objectives. An outgrowth of this plan was the creation and successful completion of the Victory with Integrity and From Here We Build development campaigns. During his 13 years as Baylor’s director of athletics, the department raised more than $390 million for capital projects and student-athlete scholarships.
While at Baylor, McCaw created a robust sports ministry program that included student-athlete and team mission trips and service programs, and he strengthened the school’s relationship with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Prior to his days at Baylor, McCaw served as the director of athletics at the University of Massachusetts during the 2002-03 academic year. At UMass, he was responsible for a 23-sport program, helping develop and implement a five-year strategic plan and secure funding for basketball locker room renovations.
Prior to his time at UMass, McCaw served as director of intercollegiate athletics and campus recreation at Northeastern from 1997-2002. During the last of his five years with the Huskies, Northeastern captured a school-record six America East Conference championships and had five teams finish among the nation’s top 20.
McCaw went to Northeastern from Tulane, where he served as senior associate athletic director for development and associate athletic director for external affairs from 1992-97. He was also Tulane’s co-interim director of athletics in 1996.
Prior to his years at Tulane, McCaw worked in a variety of athletic administrative posts at the University of Maine from 1986-92, including sports information, marketing, and external affairs.
Recognized as a national leader in intercollegiate athletics, McCaw has served as chair of the NCAA Recruiting and Personnel Issues Cabinet. He was also a member of the Big 12 Television & Game Management and Officiating Committees. Additionally, he served on the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Executive Committee and was on the Division I-A Athletics Director Association Board of Trustees.
McCaw was named 2014-15 FBS NACDA Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year and was a finalist for the 2012 and 2015 Sports Business Journal Athletics Director of the Year awards. He was named the 2012 NACDA West Region Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year and the 2010 Waco Tribune-Herald Central Texas Sportsman of the Year. He also received the 2013 VanderZwaag Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Massachusetts Sport Management Program.
McCaw earned his master’s degree in sport management from Massachusetts in 1987, after receiving a bachelor’s degree in sports administration at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, in 1985. McCaw and his wife, Heather, have four children: Christy, Paul, Callie, and Corinne.
